Ace film director Shyam Benegal could have found a better plot for his film 'Well Done Abba' in Jharkhand!
It is because a latest study conducted by Institute for Human Development (IHD) has revealed that as much as eight per cent wells constructed under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the State are just on papers.
The study conducted in six randomly selected districts-Dumka, Hazaribagh, Jamtara, Palamu and Ramgarh-coming from each geographical area of Jharkhand covered 926 wells built under the rural employment guarantee scheme.
"We got a revealing figure that about 8.9 per cent of wells or 83 out of 926 studied could not be found on ground. Mainly naxal infested districts such as Palamu and West Singhbhum were leading on this front," said Anjor Bhaskar, the researcher who along with Pankaj Yadav conducted the study titled 'All's Well That Ends in a Well'.
Well digging scheme has been attached to the MGNREGA which allows the water aquifers to be built on private land and treated as private asset. Even the owner of the well is paid wages under the scheme. Over one lakh wells were dug so far in Jharkhand under MGNREGA.
Figures coming out also suggest that 13.5 per cent of the wells studied are incomplete in nature, 0.9 per cent dug completely but stopped and 1.8 per cent were dug but filled. "Nevertheless satisfactory 60 per cent wells have been completed with parapet and if we add 9.8 per cent of those without parapet then the figure reaches nearly 70 per cent. I can say based on the study that wells are first positive NREGA has scored for its critics," said noted economist Jean Dreze on the release of the studyon Wednesday.
The study also calculated rate of return in terms of the cost effectiveness of the well constructed. 96 per cent of the wells were found to be used mainly for irrigation. One well on an average found irrigating over three acres of land and as many as five households were dependent on that for their agricultural needs.
Also, the income of the people under the command areas of the well has jumped commendably by 190 per cent. Average annual rate of return of the functional wells was calculated as 6.5 per cent that means the expenditure incurred on the well would be refunded in 15.4 years.
"Despite the worrisome missing wells, the study is fruitful. The results are positive in a sense firstly because wells are being treated as private assets that prompted beneficiaries to go for it and secondly because of the families involved were getting additional income in the form of wages through NREGA," added Dreze. Additional Secretary in Union Ministry of Rural Development Amarjeet Sinha lauded the report based on its importance in evidence based discourse.
Also present on the occasion was Rural Development Secretary NN Sinha. "We have come across the fact that 40 per cent of those who have taken wells have not applied for MGNREGA works. It is the rippling effect the scheme has created in Jharkhand where net irrigated area is below 10 per cent. Further, the State is heading in a direction where period of 'top down approach' is going to be over. Now schemes would be based on local conditions and prepared by Gram Sabhas," said Sinha who also suggested some modifications in the scheme like giving pumping sets to the beneficiaries through agriculture convergence for even better returns.
Ramesh Sharan of Department of Economic in Ranchi University pointed out the fear factor of naxals which, he said, was often used to embezzle funds coming under developmental schemes. "Most of the cases of missing well are from naxal affected areas," he explained.
Director of IHD Harishwar Dayal explained the reasoning behind conducting such a study and added that not much have been done on looking at the positive impacts the well under NREGA have had so far.